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[German version] (Ἀβραδάτης; Abradátēs). Fictitious king of Susa, protagonist in a novella in Xen. Cyr. (5,1,2; 6,1,45-52; 6,3,35-36; 6,4,2-10; 7,1,29-32; 7,3,2-14). His beautiful wife, Pantheia, was taken prisoner by Cyrus, treated very well and convinced A. to join Cyrus. A. fell in the battle against the Lydians. Pantheia committed suicide on his grave. Kuhrt, Amélie (London) Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Helen (Utrecht) Bibliography C. J. Brunner, s. v. A., Enclr 1, 228 D. Gera, Xenophon's Cyropaedia, 1993, 221-245.

[German version] (Old Persian * Datafarnah-). Sogdian who, together with  Spitamenes, handed  Bessus over to Alexander the Great (329 BC); took part in the uprising against Alexander until the  Dahae handed him over to Alexander as a prisoner (328/7 BC). Sources: Arr. Anab. 4,1,5; 4,17,7; Curt. 7,5,21; 8,3,1-16. Kuhrt, Amélie (London) Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Helen (Utrecht) Bibliography F. Holt, Alexander the Great and Bactria, 1989, 52, 65 M. Mayrhofer, Onomastica Persepolitana, 1973, 149, no. 8.367.

(Ἀχαιμένης; Achaiménēs, Hakhāmanis̆ in Old Persian). [German version] [1] Founder of the Persian royal house Founder and eponymous hero of the Persian royal house (Hdt. 7,11), described by Darius I as the family's forefather [1. 116]; his family named itself Hakhāmanis̆iya or  Achaemenids after him [1. DB I. 3-8; 2. 43-45]. In Greek mythology, Perseus or Aegeus was the father of A. (Pl. Alc. 1, 120e; Nic. Dam. FGrH 90 F 6). According to Ael. Hist. 12,21, A. was fed by an eagle (popular theme in folk tales and …

[German version] (Ἀριαράμνης; Ariarámnēs, Old Persian Ariyāramna). Persian king, son of Teispes and grandson of  Achaemenes; Darius I calls him his great-grandfather in the Behistun inscription [1. 116 DB I 5]. The validity of an inscription found in Hamadan, in which A. calls himself ‘Great King’ and ‘King of kings’ [1. 116 AmH], is disputed; if it is a forgery, it probably dates from the time of Artaxerxes II.  Achaemenids;  Darius I;  Teispes Kuhrt, Amélie (London) Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Helen (Utrecht) Bibliography 1 R. G. Kent, Old Persian, 1953. J. Balcer, Prosopographic…

(Ἀρβάκης; Arbákēs). [German version] [1] King of the Medians According to Ctesias' list of Median kings (Diod. Sic. 2,32-34), a king of the Medes who defeated the effeminate Assyrian king Sardanapal (Assurbanipal) with the help of the Babylonian Belesys and destroyed Niniveh in 625 BC (Diod. Sic. 2,24-28; Ath. 12,528f-529c). Ctesias' fanciful report is in stark contrast to the reliable account given in Babylonian cuneiform documents. In an inscription by Sargon II of Assyria (713 BC), an Arbaku is named …

(Ἀτόσσα; Atóssa, Ancient Persian * Utauthā). [German version] [1] Daughter of Cyrus II Daughter of Cyrus II, married in succession to her brothers Cambyses and Bardiya [1], then Darius [1] I (Hdt. 3,88). Mother of four of Darius' sons, including  Masistes and  Xerxes. Her name is only documented in Greek sources. Neither Aesch. Pers. (there not called by name, but only designated as the king's mother) nor Hdt. 7,2-3 prove that she outlived Darius. When her son Xerxes was named successor to the throne is unce…

[German version] (Old Persian Gōmāta; Elamitic Kammadda; Akkadian Gumātu). A magus ( Magi) [3. DB 39], who seized power after Cambyses had his brother  Bardiya [1] assassinated, on Cambyses' absence on campaign in Egypt. To justify his usurpation he claimed to be Bardiya. After Cambyses' death  Darius [1] I. and six noble Persians (Aspathines,  Hydarnes,  Intaphernes,  Gobryas,  Megabyzus, and  Otanes) brought the rule of G./Bardiya to an end and killed him (522 BC). A detailed description is in the  Bi…

[German version] (Ἀρταΰντη; Artaýntē). Daughter of  Masistes, brother of Xerxes I, married to the latter's son Darius. A fanciful account (Hdt. 9.108-113) tells how Xerxes fell in love with his daughter-in-law and his wife Amestris took revenge on the mother of the girl, leading to a revolt by Masistes. The account has literary parallels in Est and Mt 14.1-12. Kuhrt, Amélie (London) Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Helen (Utrecht) Bibliography J. Balcer, Prosopographical Study of the Ancient Persians, 1993, 106 H. Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Exit Atossa, in: A. Cameron, A. Kuhrt (ed.), Images…

(Ἀρταξέσσης, Ἀρταξέρξης; Artaxéssēs, Artaxérxēs; Old Persian Artaḫšaça). Name of several Achaemenid rulers. [German version] [1] A. I. Son of Xerxes Μακρόχειρ ( Makrócheir)/ Longimanus (465-424/3 BC), son of Xerxes and Amastris; ascended the throne in August 465 BC after the assassination of his father (Diod. Sic. 11.69.2-6) [1 ch.14]. A. succeeded in suppressing the Egyptian revolt supported by Athens (460-454 BC). He took in the fugitive Themistocles. In Asia Minor the Persians suffered losses which may have led to …

(Καμβύσης; Kambýsēs, Old Persian Kambūjiya; Elamite and Babylonian Kambuzija). [German version] [1] Father of  Cyrus II Father of  Cyrus II, called ‘the Great King, King of Anšan’ (TUAT I 409,21) in the Cyrus cylinder. According to Hdt. 1,107, married to the Median princess  Mandane; according to Ctesias, Cyrus II and the Median king were not related (FGrH 680 F 9,1). More recent research emphasizes that before Darius there were no family ties between the dynasty of Cyrus and the Achaemenids [1]; any attempt a…

[German version] (Δηιόκης; Dēiókēs). According to Hdt. 1, the first ruler of the  Medes, said to have ruled for 53 years; elected by the Medes as their ruler, he is said to have had a fortress built ( Ecbatana), surrounded himself with a bodyguard and introduced a court ceremonial designed to accustom his subjects to regard their ruler as a higher being. Herodotus' account combines contemporary elements of Achaemenid court protocol with Greek ideas on the ways of a tyrant (Hdt. 1, 96-101; [2]). The Greek personal name D. corresponds to the name Daiakku mentioned in Neo-Assyrian sources…

[German version] Satrap of Bactria, Darius III's general at the battle of  Gaugamela. Shortly afterwards he killed Darius, assumed the name Artaxerxes and tried to hold the eastern part of the Persian Empire against  Alexander [4] the Great.  Spitamenes i.a. betrayed him; he was condemned to death in Ecbatana for high treason (Arr. Anab., Curt. passim). Kuhrt, Amélie (London) Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Helen (Utrecht) Bibliography F. Holt, Alexander the Great and Bactria, 1989.  

[German version] Persian noble who defended Eïon on the Strymon against  Cimon in 476/5 BC (Hdt. 7,107). He rejected Cimon's offer of free passage and committed suicide, with all of his household, when the fortress had to surrender. Kuhrt, Amélie (London) Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Helen (Utrecht) Bibliography P. Briant, Histoire de l'empire perse, 1996, 364.  

[German version] (Ἀραχωσία; Arachōsía, Old Persian Harauvatis̆). Achaemenid, then Seleucid,  satrapy in eastern Iran/western Afghanistan; in the mid 3rd cent. BC it belonged to India. First mentioned in the Behistun inscription ( c. 519 BC) [1 DB § 17]; see also Arr. Anab., Curt. passim; Str. 11,10,1; Plin. HN 6,92; Ptol. 6,20; 6,61. Capital city, near to the Kandahar of today ( Alexandria), where a bilingual Greek-Aramaic inscription and a Greek inscription by the Mauryan king Aśoka were found. Excavations show that the city …

[German version] Village (κώμη; kṓmē) in the Susiana mentioned by Alexander's fleet commander Nearchus at the conclusion of his voyage from the Indus to Babylonia (Arr. Ind. 42,4). Aginis lay between the mouth of the Tigris and Pasitigris (today Karun); Strab. 15,3,5 also describes its location but without calling it by name. Kuhrt, Amélie (London) Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Helen (Utrecht) Bibliography F. C. Andreas, s. v. A., RE 1, 810-816.

[German version] (Babylon. Bēlšunu). Sub-governor of Babylon from 421 at least until 414 BC; Satrap of Syria at least between 407 and 401, where he owned large estates and a palace (Xen. An. 1,4,10). Being appointed as governor was unusual for a Babylonian and was probably owing to his support of Darius II in his battle for the throne. B.'s business documents written in Babylonian language (dated 424-400 BC) were found in  Babylon. Kuhrt, Amélie (London) Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Helen (Utrecht) Bibliography M. W. Stolper, The Kasr Archive, in: Achaemenid History 4, 1990, 195-205.

[English version] (Ἀρταβαζάνης). Sohn Dareios' I. und einer Tochter des Gobryas, Halbbruder des Xerxes, der ihm die Thronfolge streitig machte (Hdt. 7,2-3); darauf nimmt vielleicht eine Xerxes-Inschr. Bezug [1. 150]. Kuhrt, Amélie (London) Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Helen (Utrecht) Bibliography 1 R.G. Kent, Old Persian, 1953. J. Balcer, Prosopographical Study of the Ancient Persians, 1993, 109-110  H. Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Yaunā en Persai, 1980, 69-75.

(altpers. Vidr̥na, elam. Miturna, Mitarna). Häufiger pers. Name mehrerer Personen unterschiedlicher sozialer Stellung in den Persepolis-Täfelchen. Ktesias erwähnt passim Heiraten zwischen Hydarniden und der königlichen Familie. Wichtigste Namensträger sind: [English version] [1] Sohn des Bagabigna H., Sohn des Bagabigna, Helfer des Dareios [1] [2. DB 4.84] gegen (Pseudo)-Bardiya [2](Gaumāta), der 522 v.Chr. die rebellierenden Meder besiegte [2. DB 2.19, 21]; nach Hdt. 3,70 handelt es sich bei ihm um einen von Aspathines in das Ko…

[English version] (Ἀβραδάτης). Erfundener König von Susa, Protagonist einer Novelle bei Xen. Kyr. (5,1,2; 6,1,45-52; 6,3,35-36; 6,4,2-10; 7,1,29-32; 7,3,2-14). Die schöne Frau des A., Pantheia, wurde als Gefangene des Kyros sehr höflich behandelt und überredete daraufhin A., zu Kyros überzugehen. A. fiel in der Schlacht gegen die Lyder. Pantheia tötete sich auf seinem Grab. Kuhrt, Amélie (London) Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Helen (Utrecht) Bibliography C. J. Brunner, s. v. A., EncIr 1, 228  D. Gera, Xenophon's Cyropaedia, 1993, 221-245.

[English version] (Anzan). Name einer Region Elams und ihres Hauptortes (Tall-i Malyān, 36 km nordwestl. von Schiraz), im Westen der Fars (Persis) gelegen; seit dem späten 3. Jt. in akkad. und sumer., später in elam. Texten genannt. Die Könige Elams nannten sich Herrscher von A. und Susa. Im Kyros-Zylinder (539 v. Chr.) nennt Kyros II. seine Vorfahren Könige von A. Kuhrt, Amélie (London) Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Helen (Utrecht) Bibliography E. Carter, Bridging the Gap Between the Elamites and the Persians in South Eastern Khuzistan, in: Achaemenid History 8, 1994, 65-95  E. Carter, M. …